A wireless network, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN), has at least one access point to communicate data between devices, such as a host and at least one wireless device. An access point typically broadcasts the data in broadcast packets having a service set identifier (“SSID”) and the data. The wireless device is configured to identify broadcast packets intended for it based upon the SSID and disregard broadcast packets not having the correct SSID. The wireless device may also have a key to decode the broadcast packet SSID and data that may have been encoded by the access point.
In operation, one or more access points broadcast beacons. Each beacon has an SSID. The wireless device receives the beacons and determines whether to “connect” to an access point based upon the SSID and, in some cases, signal strength. An access point selected by a wireless device for communication may be referred to as a network device.
Once connected, the wireless device accepts broadcast packets having the SSID. The wireless device may then process the packet data in accord with its function. For example, the wireless device may be a printer and the packet data may be a bitmap.
To incorporate the wireless device in a network, the wireless device must first be configured with the correct SSID and key of an access point from which it may receive broadcast packets. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a technique to wirelessly communicate information about an access point, such as a SSID and a key, from a host to a wireless device.